“The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.” Elizabeth Hardwick

She Writes- A Collection of Short Stories

15Jan

About the Book: She Writes

An anthology of twelve sparkling short stories

Every woman has a story to tell.

Random House India, in collaboration with MSN, presents an extraordinary collection of stories from twelve talented women writers across the country-a woman trapped in a stifling marriage makes a shocking discovery, a repressed memory is suddenly brought back by a dead tree, a self-styled nun finds unlikely love in a Tibetan monastery. Rich and deeply evocative, She Writes is a celebration of some of the most exciting writing talent in our country.

My Review

I have recently started treasuring the genre of short stories, so when this book came up, i picked it up without any negative notions. What intrigued me about this book was the concept of having such a book. A coming of age book by women who are unapologetic about who she is is a great concept in itself. I thought I would be able to relate to the write ups and hence the book to me seemed pretty promising at first.

However the book turned out to be disappointing. Given the fact that the book is a compilation of short stories by several authors, I seriously doubt the logic behind picking up such half baked stories for a collection. What could have been a good read was reduced to a very ordinary and unpleasant read, I kept feeling that there was so much more to the stories when there clearly wasn’t and it was disappointing. The stories were not thought out properly, some even defied logic, events happen without reason. What could have been an entertainer was reduced to a book of half baked tales.

Pick this book up if you are thoroughly bored and you have nothing great to watch on TV.